1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 827: Look North
When it comes to doing business with Haihan people, especially investing in an undeveloped area, the businessmen in Fujian, especially the Xu family, have already tasted the sweetness of it.As a result, when Haihan started attracting investment in Kaohsiung Port, the Fujian Chamber of Commerce entered the market later than its counterparts in Guangdong, and there was a lot of resentment.However, the area of ​​the developable area near Kaohsiung is really not small, and it may not be fully developed within three to five years. Therefore, after learning about the situation, the Fujian side did not urge Haihan to open up new areas.

But Haihan is obviously not satisfied with this development zone in Tainan. Hearing Qian Tiandun's tone, Xu Jiaqi obviously intends to replicate Kaohsiung's development model in other parts of the island of Taiwan, and this time the Cantonese can't be the first. .

"General Qian, the Cantonese took the lead in Kaohsiung last time, so we can't favor them this time!" Xu Jiaqi reminded: "We can do as much money as the Guangdong side pays."

Qian Tiandun waved his hand and said, "It's useless for you to just tell me about it. You have to go to the Ministry of Commerce. I just want to let you know how to communicate. You can talk to the Ministry of Commerce by yourself. Our military doesn't will be involved."

"Yes, yes, I understand, I understand!" Xu Jiaqi saw that Qian Tiandun wanted to put aside the relationship, so he stopped entangled in this issue.He has been dealing with Haihan people for a long time, and he also knows that the Haihan military is relatively taboo about military involvement in business. Even in the arms trade, people from the Haihan Ministry of Commerce have always played the leading role, while the military only sends technical personnel to guide It is used by the Ming army and will not directly participate in the transaction process.The same is true for the project of developing plantations. The military only provides security guarantees, but the specific project operations are implemented by the Haihan Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Agriculture.

After seeing off the joyous Xu Jiaqi, Qian Tiandun summoned the person in charge of the Ministry of Civil Affairs in Penghu, and conveyed to him the decision of the executive committee to build two new immigration receiving stations in Tamsui River Estuary and Jilong Port in Taipei. .In the future, some of the immigrants introduced from the northern region will be allocated to the Taipei region for resettlement.Especially the Jilonggang area where a large number of infrastructure projects will be carried out in the future. Thousands of laborers will be needed. Most of them must be solved nearby. It is undoubtedly a good way to intercept immigrants imported from the north.

Of course, this also requires the Ministry of Civil Affairs to find a way to improve the efficiency of introducing immigrants from the north of Daming, otherwise the number of immigrants introduced each month may not be enough for the development of Taiwan, and then there is no way to send people to Hainan Island. .For Hainan Island, which is in a period of rapid development, the demand for labor is actually far greater than that of Taiwan Island, which has just started.It's just that Taiwan Island is located at an important node of the northbound air route, and it so happens that it is a "land without owner". The army and various resources have been invested in the local area.

But for Qian Tiandun, expelling the Western colonists on the island of Taiwan was just a special combat battalion completing an established combat mission, and the implementation of this mission was much less difficult than expected. After two battles, The number of casualties of the special warfare battalion was only barely double digits, and the level of damage in the siege battle was definitely too low to be lower.Regardless of the loss of personnel or the actual military expenditure, they were actually much lower than Qian Tiandun's psychological expectations before the war.

It may take a long time for the Military Commission to approve the achievements of this battle. It is hard to say whether it will be able to catch up with the annual public award ceremony during the anniversary celebration next month, but Qian Tiandun doesn't care much about these official things. Ceremony, anyway, when it's time to be promoted to a noble, one's own part must be indispensable.He has now begun to plan the next course of action after completing the military occupation of Taiwan Island.

Before the military targeted Taiwan, the executive committee set the direction of northward expansion to the coast of Zhejiang in order to speed up the introduction of immigrants from the north. However, due to various objective reasons, the military ultimately revised the original plan. Development Plan.Later facts proved that the military's strong claim was indeed correct. Haihan took control of Taiwan Island without spending too much effort, and the troops who attacked Taiwan that the opposition feared might die due to weak siege. The situation of falling into a long-term war did not happen, and the only two siege battles were calm, basically unilaterally beating each other.

Of course, Takahashi Minami, who was in charge of directing military operations in Taipei, contributed a lot to such a record.If it were Qian Tiandun who commanded it himself, it might not be smoother than him. This bold appointment has indeed received excellent results, and it has also accumulated experience for the military to boldly appoint naturalized civilian officers in the future.

After completing the operation in Taipei, Qian Tiandun thought it was time to readjust the direction of the operation and return to the previous plan.According to Haihan's consistent development strategy, the control and penetration of Ming Dynasty is mainly achieved by controlling its territory and sea power. Therefore, when choosing the foothold in the direction of Zhejiang, the military still mainly considers the large offshore islands.

From Hainan Island to Hong Kong Island at the mouth of the Pearl River, to Penghu in the Fujian Strait and the newly occupied Taiwan Island, the voyages between each stronghold of Haihan's leapfrog development have been carefully calculated to ensure Haihan's maritime capacity and Armed forces are able to maintain normal operations between these strongholds.As for the destination of the next stop, the Haihan military has already made plans - the Zhoushan Islands located off the coast of Hangzhou Bay.

In terms of voyage, the voyage from Penghu to Zhoushan Islands is slightly longer than the previous strongholds, but this small problem has been solved after Haihan occupied Taipei. The straight-line voyage from Taipei to Zhoushan is only a little over 300 nautical miles. The flight distance between Penghu and Penghu is almost the same.The distance between Penghu and Taipei is only more than a hundred nautical miles, so that Haihan's chained sea control line can be extended to the north without worrying about the long voyage and being unable to provide timely supplies or support.

As for the specific foothold, the military is interested in Zhoushan Island, the fourth largest island on the Chinese territory of later generations.This island with an area of ​​more than 500 square kilometers is the main island in the Zhoushan Archipelago. As early as the Kaiyuan period of the Tang Dynasty, the county seat of Wengshan County was established.During the Xining period of the Northern Song Dynasty, Wang Anshi petitioned the imperial court to restore the county government here. Song Shenzong approved the application and changed the place name to "Changguo". "It means that it controls Japan in the east, Denglai in the north, Ou and Fujian in the south, and Wuhui in the west. It is a huge obstacle in the sea, which is enough to prosper and strengthen the country."

In the 15th year of the Yuan Dynasty, Changguo County was promoted to a prefecture due to the increase in population. According to records, the population of the Zhoushan Islands had exceeded 12 at this time.In addition to the place name of Changguo, the name "Zhoushan" also began to appear in historical materials.It is recorded in the "Changguozhou Tuzhi" in the Yuan Dynasty: "Zhoushan, in the south of the state, has mountain wings like the Mei of the sea, and it is named because of the gathering of boats."

However, such a prosperous scene did not last for too long. With the relaxation of coastal defense at the end of Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of Republic of China, Japanese pirates began to enter this area for activities.During the Hongwu period of the Ming Dynasty, Japanese pirates became more and more rampant, and they had already used Changguo as a sea springboard to enter the mainland to plunder, but the Ming court actually adopted a passive way of emigrating people and banning the sea. The government of Changguo County has completely left this area under the control of Japanese pirates.This situation has not been completely improved since the beginning of Ming Dynasty.

Although Ningbo, Shaoxing, Jiaxing, Hangzhou and other prefectures have cleared Japanese pirates at sea several times, there are many islands in the Zhoushan Archipelago, with as many as 58 islands with an area of ​​more than one square kilometer. There are natural harbors available for use, and the pirates and Japanese pirates have three caves, and it is difficult to completely wipe them out with the ability of the Ming Navy.More than 200 years have passed since the early years of Hongwu, but the problem of piracy in this area has still not been cured.The only good news for the government is that there are no large-scale armed gangs like Shibazhi among the pirates operating in this area. Although they often plunder passing merchant ships at sea, they do not threaten the big cities near the coast.

If Haihan wanted to establish a new stronghold in the Zhoushan Islands, he had to face the pirate gangs that had been operating in this area all year round.Coexisting with pirates is definitely impossible and unacceptable. What Haihan must do is to drive these pirates out of this sea area, or wipe them out completely.Of course, if the military is allowed to choose, the latter solution is probably more suitable for them. After all, the number of enemy troops who annihilated captives is also an important basis for post-war meritorious rewards. Very bad.

However, the situation in the waters of the Zhoushan Islands is much more complicated than when it was fighting in Penghu. In addition, the local pirates operate in small gangs, unlike Shibazhi, who can be severely injured as long as they bite their main force.Although the strength of the two sides is very different, it is indeed not an easy task for the Haihan Army to completely eliminate the pirates in the Zhoushan Islands. It will definitely take a long time to clean up the many islands in this sea area.

If you want to send a small fleet to assist the army in landing like you did against the Spaniards in Taipei, this tactic may not be able to achieve good results in the Zhoushan Islands.The local pirate camps are definitely not as strong as the Spanish castles, but the problem is that they will not stick to their strongholds like the Spaniards. The vast sea area will make it several times more difficult for Haihan to attack them.The most practical way, I am afraid, is to send a fleet with a strong lineup to repeatedly clear and suppress this sea area by pulling a net, leaving no room for it to move around.

Haihan's fleet naturally wouldn't have any problems in terms of combat capability. After all, even the Dutch and the Spaniards had already suffered losses one after another, and the armed level of the pirate ships was even more difficult to compete head-on with the Haihan warships.But the problem is that if you want to send a large number of warships to fight locally, the preparations you need to do before the war will be more troublesome than fighting Taiwan.

If this battle plan is still made only by the staff team at the Penghu base, there will be too many projects that cannot be coordinated, so Qian Tiandun can only report his intention to the Military Commission first, and the staff department under the Military Commission will formulate relevant combat plans and unify Arrange for the mobilization of troops participating in the war and the supply of logistical materials.The time required for this process may be one or two months, or it may be three to five months or even longer, depending to a certain extent on changes in the external environment.Especially now that Taiwan has just been acquired and offended both the Dutch and the Spaniards at the same time, it will be necessary to prevent these two families from retaliating for a period of time, and the military forces that can be invested in the north will become extremely limited.

Of course, Qian Tiandun will not just sit and wait. Since the matter of going north will have to be done sooner or later, before the staff comes up with a specific action plan, he hopes to learn more about the offshore waters north of the Fujian Strait through various investigative methods. Regional conditions, and use this to revise the combat plan formulated by the military.

Regarding the intelligence collection work in the coastal areas of Daming, the Haihan Security Department has actually been carrying out the work, but the Haihan Security Department lacks military-born spies, so most of the intelligence that can be collected from the Daming control area is political, commercial and trade news. Mainly, but there are very few missions to survey terrain, sea conditions and other information.Even after receiving such a task, unprofessional intelligence personnel can only understand the general situation, and will not play much of a reference and promotion role in the decisions that need to be made now.

Qian Tiandun's idea is to follow the example of what he did when he landed in the Zhuoshuixi area of ​​Taiwan Island for the first time, and send a small group of armed forces as a reconnaissance team to uncontrolled areas for reconnaissance and intelligence gathering.The advantage of doing this is that intelligence collection will be more targeted. After all, people in the military know better what key information they need.

However, this kind of investigation plan is far more dangerous than the original operation in the Zhuoshui River area. After all, Zhuoshui River is very close to Penghu. If there is trouble, Penghu can send reinforcements to the area on the same day.However, the Zhoushan Islands are more than 300 nautical miles away from Taipei. If the reconnaissance force is in danger there, it will be too late to provide support.

Qian Tiandun actually wanted to lead the team to do this matter himself, but he also knew that the Military Commission would definitely not allow him to risk himself. After all, it is no longer as unavailable as it was at the beginning of the time travel. This kind of task is simply not available. Qian Tiandun needed to go out in person, and the reconnaissance platoon directly under the Special Warfare Battalion plus the elite personnel of the navy could carry it out.At the beginning, the scene where the North American Gang and him performed the reconnaissance mission behind the enemy lines together in Annan will probably be difficult to reappear in the future. After all, these people are all holding important positions in various places now, and even the possibility of stepping into a battlefield at the same time is impossible. Very little.

In late March, Qian Tiandun did not wait for the Military Commission's reply on this matter, but first waited for the fourth ship of the "Majestic Class" warship "Enterprise" assigned to serve in Penghu.

(End of this chapter)